You Were Always There
by YumeKioko
Summary: He knew in his heart that the girl he truly loved was the one who had been there for him all along. Sorry bad summary but hope you enjoy some sasusaka and naruhina.


**You Were Always There**

**Authors notes: Hi, everyone so this is my first one-shot like ever like I've never even attempted such a thing. So if you please send me constructive criticism. Hey check out my friend's, BettyCrocker14, story Konoha HighSchool: Scroll one art disaster and review but read my story first and then read hers and don't forget to review mine and I'm going to stop babbling. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. **

_Life cannot be measured_

_By the moments well prepared for_

_But by those little inconveniences_

_That have nothing better to do_

_Than to show us what we are missing out on_

_By: Anonymous _

The world was ablaze with the throbbing warmth of the sun and no cloud dare venture into the sky for fear of melting away like cotton candy. The residents of The Leaf Village rose from a good nights slumber and embraced the day with the kind of gusto only the people of the leaf village could muster, and for one blond haired ninja it would be the best day ever. Just maybe not in the way he expects.

"Hehehe today is going to be awesome!" Naruto shouted in the middle of a street throbbing with activity. Naruto went over his schedule for the day.

He was going to go to team 7 usual training spot at 9 a.m.

After working out for 2 hrs he was going to head over to Ichirakus to have ramen with Iruka sensei. IRUKA SENSEI'S TREAT!

Than the Pervy Sage was going to teach him a new jutsu.

And after that the best part of the day… HE had a date with his long time crush Sakura-chan at 6:30 p.m.

Naruto was just bristling with the anticipation of his date with Sakura, but one must wonder how did Naruto convince Sakura to go on a date with him? He had made this bet with her during training one day that if he could read a 653 pg. book in four days and give her a full report on it he could take her on a walk. He was so excited when he won that all the agony of having to read a book was worth it just go on a date with her. When he told everyone they all congratulated but for some reason Sasuke had seemed really angry and worried. Which Naruto didn't understand why because everyone knew Sasuke didn't care about anyone…but himself. Naruto had just brushed it off though. He had a very special evening planed out and he thought Sakura would just love it.

A long time ago when he as little but not little enough that some of the towns' people didn't beat him up at least once a week or more. He had fled into the forest beaten and broken and passed out. When he awoke in the morning he was laying on the softest and probably greenest grass ever and with the sun filtering in through the dense foliage above his head he found a cheery blossom tree standing over this stream as if to look at its reflection. The stream was so clear and peaceful that one could like at it all day as it meandered on its way deeper into the forest. The only thing that added to its beauty was that the stream was fed by a small waterfall. The mist that rose off the waterfall would settle on the cheery blossom petals and being as delicate as they are the cheery blossom petals would than float away from the tree and into the stream. Not only that when the wind blew just right and the sun fell on the mist that rose from the waterfall you felt as if you were in some kind of dream land. It was gorgeous and the only thing that could rival its beauty in Naruto's opinion was Sakura's. After that day he would visit that spot whenever he was hurt or sad and sit underneath that Cheery Blossom. Sometimes he would write notes and stick them under this very small hollow at the base of the tree and would imagine them falling into wonderland. It was his secret hideaway and he thought Sakura might appreciate him more if he showed her one of his only safe havens, but that wouldn't be till later and so currently getting to training on time was top priority.

Naruto sprinted all the way to the training grounds but he still ended up being five minutes late. Sakura and Sasuke were standing by the three posts' where they all first officially became shinobi. Naruto was a bit surprised to see them talking kind of urgently to each other. Sasuke looked really agitated and Sakura looked as if she was pleading for him to understand something. Naruto though was oblivious to everything and put on an extra burst of speed and raced to his friends shouting, "Hey guys!" Sakura and Sasuke both turned and finally noticed him barreling towards them in time for Sasuke to gain his icy composure back and for Sakura to put on a mask of irritation.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late!" Naruto said scratching the back of his head kind of sheepishly.

"Do you have to YELL all the time!" Sakura said with arms crossed over her chest and she glared at Naruto the kind I believe she reserved especially for him. Naruto cringed from Sakura's remark as if she had slapped him in the face.

"Sorry Sakura." Naruto said sounding as if he was truly embarrassed for just being himself. Sakura continued to glare at Naruto with that puppy dog expression of his until her eyes softened just a fraction of a bit and she said, "Huhh don't be Naruto I should be the one apologizing I'm a bit cranky today." Naruto stared at Sakura for a moment kind of blindsided by the gentleness to her tone compared to her usual brisk and steely one. Than Naruto turned his head and glared at Sasuke,

"Is it Sasuke's attitude that is irritating you Sakura-chan?" Sakura immediately went back to her usual self and retaliated by bonking Naruto on the head and saying,

"SHUT UP NARUTO! YOU'RE THE ONE ANNYOYING ME RIGHT NOW!"

Naruto just sat on the ground and rubbed the spot where Sakura had hit him. Sasuke watched the whole situation with the eyes of someone void of empathy.

"Dobe." Sasuke said.

Naruto in the wink of an eye was standing up with his fist in Sasuke's face,

"What did you say?" Naruto growled.

"I knew you were an idiot but I didn't know you were deaf too." Sasuke said with a sarcastic little quirk to his lips. At that Naruto grabbed hold of Sasuke's shirt and growled even deeper, "Hey what's your problem?"

"Ohh look at poor little Naruto making everyone feel sorry for you just because you're an orphan." Naruto didn't know what the heck was going on. Yeah, Sasuke could be a real jerk but he had never been this cold before.

"You're just jealous I have a date with Sakura and you don't!" Naruto said getting increasingly more infuriated with the onyx haired shinobi.

"It's not like she is going willingly you idiot!" When Sasuke spoke jealousy flashed in his eyes but it was there for only a moment and it had left so quickly Naruto wasn't even sure that he had seen it.

"Why I…" But before Naruto could finish his sentence and most likely punch Sasuke in the face Kakashi-sensei appeared or more like poofed into existence and was crouching on top of the middle stump on the training field reading icha-icha paradise/tactics. Everyone stared at Kakashi who seemed oblivious to the whole situation. He finally acknowledged them by peeking over the rim of his book and saying, "Oh good you're all here."

Sasuke shoved the distracted Naruto and brushed the wrinkles out of his shirt and said, "About time you got here we've been waiting for ten minutes."

"I'm sorry but there was this cat stuck up in this tree and being a shinobi and all it was my civil duty to rescue the poor thing." Kakashi said rubbing the back of his head and smiling or at least Naruto thought he was smiling it was hard to tell with that mask that Kakashi sensei wore at all times.

"LIAR! You were probably just at home reading that perverted book of yours." Naruto said pointing an accusing finger at his sensei.

"Well that doesn't matter now does it. I'm here now so let's get into training shall we?" Naruto still grumpy at his sensei just nodded his head.

Sakura asked, "Sensei what do you want us to do today?"

"Well I thought today should be a fun day since the weather is so nice. So follow me." Kakashi led the group into the surrounding woods. Naruto perked up at hearing that they were going to do something fun today. Kakashi led them a ways into the woods taking many a twists and turns when he stopped seemingly for no apparent reason. The group stood in a line in front of Kakashi as he drew a line in the dirt with the heel of his foot. Once he was done he started to speak, "Alright today we are going to have a little contest."

"Yeah, about time we did something other than studying what nuts are poisonous." Naruto said with delight.

Sakura teardrop and said, "Idiot nuts can't be poisonous."

Kakashi continued to speak as if there had been no interruption, "This right here…" Kakashi said pointing at the line he had made in the dirt, "Is the starting line. What lies beyond this starting line is a series of obstacles. At the very end of those obstacles is a clearing. If you're the first one to make it to that clearing you win and get a prize. Last one to make it out gets punished. Understood?"

"Yes!" They shouted in unison. Kakashi then said, "Ohh and one last thing before you start, these obstacles are designed to kill so be careful." Kakashi looked at each of the young ninja's faces.

"Alrighty than on that happy note step up to the line and let the games begin." Team seven took that us their cue to start and in a blur raced off into different directions.

Naruto was jumping from one tree limb as fast as he could becoming nothing more than a blur. The whole time having a private conversation with himself, "If I win Sasuke will respect me and Sakura will admire me. Not only that if the prize is money I can buy Sakura something nice for our date. I got to win I got to win!" Naruto was going so fast that when he came to his first obstacle he stopped so abruptly that he was flapping his arms to keep his balance but in the end the only thing that kept him from falling was the fact that he placed some chakra on the soles of his feet in time so that he was hanging upside down. He stared at his first obstacle with awe. In between two giant trees was a web the size of a football field of criss-crossing metallic wires that connected to paper bombs posted all along the side of the tree's thick trunks'. Naruto knew that if he was going to be able to win and stay alive he had to think of every single move through before he executed it.

He tried to go around and above the giant web but it was exactly like that time during the chunin exams when he was in the forest of death with Kabuto. He would run a ways but would always end up exactly where he was before; right in front of the metallic web. Than Naruto searched the web for any gaps big enough for Naruto to fit through but the web was woven so tightly Naruto would have a tough time fitting even one of his arms through one of the gaps. Naruto was starting to get worried, he had spent seven minutes now trying to find a way through but couldn't. Than out of nowhere a brilliant plan formed in Naruto's mind. Naruto created 150 shadow clones and sent one to go trip the wires, the other 149 he had pile on top of him like a human shield. After Naruto was protected the lone clone charged the wires and detonated the trap. The blast was so big and powerful every tree in a 50 yard radius was burnt to a crisp and after it was done Naruto probably had only 8 more clones still on top of him. After the coast was clear the remaining clones vanished into thin air and Naruto raced onward trying to make up for lost time.

Naruto went along at a fairly brisk pace and had only encountered a few troubles here and there. Like at one point he accidently tripped a wire that let loose a barrage of kunai. Naruto was barely able to substitute himself for a tree stump in time and he still got cut across the top of his right shoulder and across his left cheek just below the eye, and another time Naruto was faced with an endless wall of trees side by side but thanks to his first mission in The Land of Waves when he first learned chakra control he easily climbed up and over them. It had been a while since the last obstacle when Naruto saw a pink haired kounochi up in front of him. Naruto raced to her and when he was right behind her he whispered, "Hey Sakura!" Surprised by the new guest Sakura's first response was to whirl around with a Kunai in hand and slash at Naruto's throat. Naruto dodged it in time and put up his hands in surrender, "Wow Sakura it's me!" Sakura stared at him for a long while as if she didn't believe it but finally she hissed, "Naruto you moron don't you know better than to sneak up behind a girl."

"Ha Ha sorry Sakura." Naruto said with that huge grin of his and scratching the back of his head sheepishly, but then Naruto smile vanished for all of a sudden he felt this jolt of energy that raced up his spine and set the sensors in his head on fire. Not only that there was this thrumming feeling that ge felt in every one of his nerve ending and this strange tugging feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"What's that feeling?" Naruto asked restraining himself from wrapping his arms around his midsection.

"I don't know," Sakura said obviously upset by that fact, "I stopped as soon as I felt it. I investigated it and found this." Sakura went and grabbed the nearest stick, "Watch this." She than and then threw the stick about a few feet front of herself. At first Naruto didn't know what she was doing until he saw that the stick had frozen in midflight and was slowly being stripped of its bark by some invisible force until nothing was left.

"What the heck?"Naruto said looking at the space where the stick had once occupied.

"I have no clue all I know is that there is no way above or around it and that if you step into that space it freezes you in place and melts you away so that not even a puddle is left."

"Do you have a plan?" Naruto asked aware that Sakura wasn't being rude to him and that they were so close to each other they were nearly touching.

"If I did I still wouldn't be here would I?" But she spoke as is she had resigned herself just to wait here until Kakashi-sensei called the game a quits.

"Hey come on Sakura you're the smartest girl I know! If you can't figure it out no one can!" Naruto said while looking at Sakura with that huge smile of his. Sakura peeked at him from the corner of eye but after a while a smile started to bloom on her face.

"Alright requires some thorough thinking. I'm going to sit over there," Sakura said pointing at a patch of grass a yard away, "that way I can think in silence. You do whatever just let me focus." Naruto looked a little bit sad, hoping that she would want to work on this together but he just nodded his headed in consent, and watched as Sakura turned her back on him and walked to the little patch of grass. Naruto sat where he was and for the first five minutes just sat there and picked the grass. Once that had become boring he started throwing rocks into that force field thing, watching how the stones would start to melt layer by layer like butter on a hot skillet. Naruto had just thrown a rock when he threw another one wondering what would happen if the first rock hit the second. The answer to their problems unfolded right in front of his eyes and so her immediately shot up in surprise and then with a smile on his face raced over to Sakura.

"Sakura, Sakura you got to look at what I found out!" Naruto said shouting and hollering and flapping his arms and pointing all over the place like some kind of crazed chicken. Sakura growled, "This better be good." Upset that Naruto had interrupted her train of thought. "Trust me this is definitely worth your time." Naruto said smiling like a big idiot. Naruto ran and grabbed two rocks, "Watch this." Naruto said suddenly serious and with a flick of his wrist he threw the first rock and as suspected it froze and started to sizzle.

"This is what you interrupted me for! To watch you throw rocks?" Sakura said extremely irritated. She started to turn her back and walk away when his hand snapped out as fast as a snake to grab hold of her wrist.

"Wait hold up I'm not done." Naruto said.

She stared into those eyes that were yearning for her to wait to understand and so with a stiff nod she gave him permission to continue. He smiled and let go of her wrist and with another flick of his wrist he threw the second rock right at the first one that used to be the size of cookie but had now become the size of a marble. The second one hit the first tapping it and what happened made Sakura's jaw drop. When the second rock hit the first the first dropped and the second froze instead.

"Naruto…" Sakura said still staring at the spot.

"Hehehe we can just switch places that's all. One of us will be frozen for a few seconds while the other person runs to get on the other side of the first person and then taps them." Naruto said pleased that he had come up with the solution to their problem.

"Naruto it might work but what about Sasuke." Sakura said Naruto felt this unbearable sadness rush through him like the water that would be released if you blew up a dam, but Naruto didn't want Sakura to see him sad so he covered it up with a smile he slapped onto his face.

"Knowing Sasuke he's probably already on the other side waiting for us to catch up." Sakura looked at the ground her forehead scrunched up with thought. 30 seconds passed by before she nodded her head, "Yeah you're probably right. He'll probably get upset if we don't go and meet him soon." Sakura said giving Naruto a small smile that warmed his heart, but It was soon replaced with a grim look that of determination.

"Alright you ready for this." Sakura said getting in a running stance. Naruto put on a little cocky grin and said, "You better believe it." They talked a bit and decided that Naruto should run in first (mostly because Naruto didn't want Sakura to think he wasn't chivalrous or anything. Guys always should put themselves in harm's way before a lady that's just the rule) and he was just getting ready to run in when he looked at Sakura with her white, slender, and completely bare arms and said, "Wait." Sakura looked at Naruto quizzically as he unzipped his jacket and slowly started to take it off, he said to Sakura, "That thing is going to burn so you might want to put on this." He extended out his jacket and Sakura just stared at him a bit confused. Sakura knew that he liked her but still she was mean to him. Sakura thought about why she had to be mean to him, why she had to make sure he didn't fall for her any more than he already was. Naruto tilted his head to the side confusion etching his face but she finally took it and mumbled a little, "Thank You."

When Naruto was satisfied he got ready and raced off into the strange energy thing. Naruto barely made it more than three steps before the trap ensnared him. At first it didn't hurt but then Naruto started to feel it and when he could start feeling it he wanted to scream. Every nerve felt like it was being individually placed in a microwave, and his bones felt like a bunch of frabid dogs where chewing on them, and his head felt like it was being pounded on by a sledge hammer. Than it all stopped for Sakura whizzed right by him and while passing by she tapped him on the shoulder releasing him from his silent torture. He fell face forward and was gasping for breath but he didn't stay down long. Sakura was counting on him and that is what mattered. He picked himself up and raced towards the frozen Sakura and tapped her on her shoulder as he passed by and so it became a continuous cycle. They did it fast enough so at first they didn't bleed or anything but slowly their skin started to soften up. Their lips started to split and patches of skin just started to peel away like the skin of a banana. Naruto took the worst of it since he was missing his jacket but he kept on going because he knew that if he failed that Sakura would die. So he fought through the pain and when seconds became minutes and the minutes just continued to stack up on each other, that drive to protect her was what kept him going.

Naruto had just unfrozen Sakura when he broke out the other end of what Naruto named "The Exterminator" because he was positive this was how rats or insects felt when they were being eradicated. They broke through and both immediately fell onto the ground where they took gulp after gulp of clean air before it was tainted with the smell of burnt flesh. Without a word spoken they came to the mutual agreement to lay there and just rest. 7 minutes passed by when Naruto knew that if they stayed there any longer they would never be able to leave. So he stood up his bones feeling like that of an old mans and he extended a helping hand to Sakura who accepted it. Naruto pulled her up and with a nod of their heads they raced off, not as fast as before, into the treetops.

Sakura didn't leave Naruto even though she could have gone her own way. Naruto was so elated by this there was an extra skip to his step that place him a few steps ahead of her t but his happiness didn't last long. Sakura who was made clumsy by the energy lost because of "The Exterminator" accidently tripped a wire and the world fell from beneath her feet. The tree limbs wavered as if an illusion leaving only the open air. Everything went into slow motion at that moment, Sakura clawing at the air, Naruto turning in slow motion in time to see the whole display play out in front of his eyes. Naruto pivoted so fast that Rock Lee would have bowed at Naruto's feet and with a rush of pure adrenaline he made a bunch of shadow clones that created a human budgie cord, each clone latching onto the ankles of another until the real Naruto was on the very end, and without fear the real Naruto jumped and flew towards Sakura. He tried to gain speed by making his body as aero-dynamic as possible and so he soon reached Sakura and grabbed hold of her wrist. But with so much speed and weight the budgie cord broke and all the clones poofed out of existence since all of Naruto's chakra was spent. Without a plan B and with the forest floor drawing nearer Naruto pulled Sakura to his body and spun them around in the air in time for Naruto to cushion her fall. Naruto impacted so hard that the world flashed red from the pain and then was substituted for complete and utter darkness as he passed out.

**Author's notes: Alright there is no way I can make this into a one-shot. Sorry people I tried my best but apparently my best just sucked. So instead I'll write some more chapters to finish this story. Oh just so you know all of the chapters will take place on the same day. Please review! Please, Please, Please, Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaasssse review and soon like really, really, really soon. Like you should already be reviewing at this very moment.**


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